Daniel Craig Reveals The Worst Part Of His Star Wars Cameo 10 Years Later

Ten years after Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, Daniel Craig reveals the worst part about his cameo. Craig has an uncredited cameo as a First Order stormtrooper who appears when Rey (Daisy Ridley) is held captive on Starkiller Base. He is the same stormtrooper that Rey uses a Jedi mind trick on in order to free her from the restraints.

Craig’s appearance was kept under wraps before the movie’s highly anticipated theatrical release, and it was only in the aftermath that the cameo became common knowledge. It came about when Craig was filming the James Bond movie Spectre. He asked Ben Dixon, who worked on Spectre and The Force Awakens as a second assistant director, about appearing in the new Star Wars movie, and director J.J. Abrams agreed to make it happen.

While promoting Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery on Sirius XM, Craig was asked if the stormtrooper uniform is uncomfortable. He confirmed that it was, as the uniform smelled unpleasant and the overlong, solid sleeves left his thumb hurting for a week afterward. Despite the discomfort, Craig is grateful for the experience. Check out his comments below:

It’s basically worn by a lot of stuntmen out in the desert, so … they don’t smell great. Also, the sleeves on mine were too long, and it’s solid, and I couldn’t feel my thumb for a week. But otherwise, it was great.

With Rian Johnson directing and writing The Force Awakens‘ sequel, The Last Jedi, both he and Craig worked on the sequel trilogy before teaming up for their Knives Out movies. Long before the first Knives Out and when The Force Awakens was still in production, though, Johnson had already figured out that it wasn’t just a background actor in the stormtrooper uniform.

During a Q&A session of a New York City screening for Wake Up Dead Man‘s press tour, which was moderated by Abrams, Johnson recalled how the scene stood out to him. He asked about the actor playing the stormtrooper, and it was confirmed that Craig was the one portraying him.

When I was writing episode eight, we were watching dailies, because [Abrams was] shooting seven. One day… it was a scene with Daisy [Ridley] where she does the Force mind control on a stormtrooper and gets him to unlock her things. The daily came up, the stormtrooper came up, she said it, the stormtrooper didn’t say anything—just walked across the room to her.

And I did this: “Who’s that actor?” And Pablo [Hidalgo] at Lucasfilm was like, “I think it’s just a stunt dude in a stormtrooper thing,” and I go, “No—that’s a real actor, just from the way they walked across the stage.”

As uncomfortable as the stormtrooper uniform was, Craig still brought a significant presence to the part, even getting Johnson to take note of the character simply by the way he walked. Beyond making the small role distinct, Craig’s performance helped shape an important moment in Star Wars canon, as it is on him that Rey does her first Jedi mind trick and further discovers her strong connection to the Force.

Craig is best known for the Knives Out and James Bond films, but his cameo also makes him officially part of the vast Star Wars timeline and the long-running franchise. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens celebrating its 10-year anniversary, he is a memorable piece of the movie’s legacy.